A Gulfport Holocaust survivor is using compensation from her tragic experience to enrich the lives of others. 

  • Betty Goldberg's father was take to Nazi death camps on a French-owned railway
  • Goldberg was approved for a reparations claim from the French Govt.
  • She donated some of that money to the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services

On Monday, Betty Goldberg, 85, gave $10,000 to the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services' Holocaust Survivor Program.

Goldberg's money came from one of 90 claims, for a total of $11 million in reparations from the French government, which is handled by the U.S. State Department.

The payments apply to Holocaust survivors -- or their heirs -- who were deported from France to death camps on the state-owned French railway.

An estimated 76,000 prisoners were taken to Nazi death camps on the railway, usually with no food and only a bucket for a toilet. Only about 2,000 survived.

Goldberg was nine years old and living in Vincennes, France in 1941 when her father, Anzel Borentin, was taken by the Nazis. He was transported by the French railway from Paris to Auschwitz and was imprisoned there from 1941 to 1945.


Anzel Borentin survived The Holocaust and moved to the United States in 1951. He died in 2005. (Photo courtesy of Betty Goldberg)

During that time, a stationmaster, at the request of her father, hid Goldberg at a rail station at Loury-Rebrechien, France. She hid there from 1942-1944 while her mother was hidden in a nearby city. While there, Goldberg survived deplorable conditions, constantly living in fear.

"I was like an orphan,” Goldberg said. “It was horrible. I was scared all the time."

In December 1944, after the Allies entered Paris, Goldberg was reunited with her mother and they returned home. They didn’t know if her father had survived until months later.

"One day there was a knock on the door,” Goldberg said. “I answered the door and I let out a scream, ‘Papa!’ I recognized him even though he looked like a skeleton."

Borentin told his family his voice saved his life. He would sing for the camp commander in exchange for bread.

In 1951, the family moved to the United States. Borentin lived until 2005.

Goldberg spent the last three years working with Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, filing the claim for reparations from the French railway.

The Holocaust Survivor Program helps more than 250 survivors in the Tampa Bay area with things like in-home healthcare and financial assistance.